English Chess Forum

Alex Holowczak wrote:

MatthewParry wrote:Apparently Wokefield Park is under new management. It will be interesting to see if this changes anything for the forthcoming season.

We held a Junior 4NCL weekend there this past weekend.

The change in decoration is noticeable. If you're a fan of artificial plants, wood furnishing, and a general parkland/woodland feel, then Wokefield Park is the hotel for you.

Fake grass in the walls; very odd design choice! I wish they'd spent the money on extra staff for the bar!

The registrations for the 2017-18 season (apart from about half a dozen teams) are now on the website: http://www.4ncl.co.uk/registrations.htm

Pairings for 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B now online: http://www.4ncl.co.uk/data/pairings_1718.htm

In case any one is counting, this is the eighth consecutive year in which Guildford 1 and Barbican 2 start in the same group. Eight consecutive years!!

Jonathan Rogers wrote:In case any one is counting, this is the eighth consecutive year in which Guildford 1 and Barbican 2 start in the same group. Eight consecutive years!!

How many years for Guildford 2 and Barbican 1 then?

In my second year as Wood Green captain we are in a pool with seven different teams to those we faced last season albeit we did face our 2017-18 rounds 1, 3 and 5 opponents in rounds 9-11 in 2016-17.

LawrenceCooper wrote:

Jonathan Rogers wrote:In case any one is counting, this is the eighth consecutive year in which Guildford 1 and Barbican 2 start in the same group. Eight consecutive years!!

How many years for Guildford 2 and Barbican 1 then?

....

This will be "only" the seventh, since Guildford 2 were not in the first division at all in 2010/2011, while they were going through a brief recession. (Not suggesting that the success of their second team in any way depends on money! Goodness me, no!)

Which teams have been around the longest in the 4NCL? Maybe (or maybe not) taking into account name changes.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Which teams have been around the longest in the 4NCL? Maybe (or maybe not) taking into account name changes.

This is probably a good place to start looking: http://www.olimpbase.org/index.html?htt ... F4ncl.html

LawrenceCooper wrote:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Which teams have been around the longest in the 4NCL? Maybe (or maybe not) taking into account name changes.

This is probably a good place to start looking: http://www.olimpbase.org/index.html?htt ... F4ncl.html

Some further info on name changes: http://www.olimpbase.org/index.html?htt ... F4ncl.html

So hard to tell, with various name changes and, moreover, mergers. It could be BCM, starting in 1994/5, merging with Invicta Home House (already a merged team!) in 2000, then separating in 2002 and becoming the ADs.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Which teams have been around the longest in the 4NCL?

Barbican were there from the beginning, but took a break in the third season when the BCF tried to set up a rival league.

The initial 6 from 1993-94 were

Invicta Knights Maidstone
Barbican
Covent Garden
Slough
North West Eagles
Bristol

Bristol (Bristol League) only recently stopped running a team in their own name.

LawrenceCooper wrote:

LawrenceCooper wrote:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Which teams have been around the longest in the 4NCL? Maybe (or maybe not) taking into account name changes.

This is probably a good place to start looking: http://www.olimpbase.org/index.html?htt ... F4ncl.html

Some further info on name changes: http://www.olimpbase.org/index.html?htt ... F4ncl.html

Thanks. I think you mean this link?

http://www.olimpbase.org/index.html?htt ... F4ncl.html

Do those familiar with this think this is a complete list of name changes and mergers (well, the obvious ones).

Olimpbase doesn't seem to have been updated for the 4NCL beyond the 2014-15 season.

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Which teams have been around the longest in the 4NCL?

Barbican were there from the beginning, but took a break in the third season when the BCF tried to set up a rival league.

The initial 6 from 1993-94 were

Invicta Knights Maidstone
Barbican
Covent Garden
Slough
North West Eagles
Bristol

Bristol (Bristol League) only recently stopped running a team in their own name.

What happened to Slough? North West Eagles seem to have been around for a long time. What happened to them?

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: What happened to Slough?

Ben Purton took over the management of the squad and renamed it first to Slough Sharks and then Sambuca Sharks. A merger with Grantham followed to create today's Grantham Sharks. He also uses the name "Sons of Anarchy" for the rapidplay squad (this year's winners)

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: What happened to Slough?

Ben Purton took over the management of the squad and renamed it first to Slough Sharks and then Sambuca Sharks. A merger with Grantham followed to create today's Grantham Sharks. He also uses the name "Sons of Anarchy" for the rapidplay squad (this year's winners)

Looking from the outside, it seems more complicated than that. Ben was already running a team under the Slough banner but with a separate registration list from that of Nigel Johnson's first team, and it could be said that the original Slough team of 1993 ended when Nigel Johnson's team declined to re-eneter in 2005.

No doubt the point can be argued differently too; and I stress that I am just an outside observer here. But it is a further example of how difficult it is to trace the histories of teams over the year. For the record, I regard the Barbican team which re-entered in 1996 as a different entity from that which played between 1993-5; then arguably it became a different entity again in 1998 when it became its own club (Barbican 4NCL), quite distinct from the (then still continuing) London club.